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Fun and Challenging

Inspiring Guides

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Inspiring Guides

Creative Thinking

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Inspiring Guides to Inspire Travellers

At the heart of every great safari is a great guide. Every guide is unique. Our mission at Silver Sengi is to help individuals unlock their full potential to bring their safaris to life.

The training is both guide-centric and guest-centric. Guides will be challenged on their career pathway and passions, both as individuals and as a team. We will coach and mentor guides to relook at the guided experience through the eyes of the traveller. We aim to create a fun, but focused training environment that rekindles the love for the environment and people we work with.

Arming guides with practical skills and insight, we aim to unleash their potential.

About us

Silver Sengi

We are safari industry professionals with a wide range of experience across the African continent and further abroad. We’ve been training guides for well over 20 years.

We draw on our experiences as lodge manager, head guide, walking guide, training school manager and community NGO manager to bring a holistic view to our training.

Silver Sengi is a new collaborative initiative that allows us to bring high quality, effective training to clients at the demanding end of the industry.

What’s a sengi?

What’s a sengi?

Otherwise known as an elephant shrew, the sengi is part of a unique group of endemic African mammals (Afrotheria). They are small, very fast and have long trunk-like snouts used to find insect and worm prey. They are found in a variety of desert, savanna and forest habitats. And of course they are good listeners, cute and curious!

Meet the Trainers

Alastair Kilpin - Silver Sengi Guide

Alastair Kilpin

I started guiding in Zululand in 1998. Having grown up as an amateur naturalist full of great input from family and professionals, this was a natural step to take. And what an incredible life adventure it has sparked.

After a few years guiding at the incomparable Phinda, I was privileged to be involved in the growth and development of the next generation of guides. I was part of a small team that ran the Inkwazi guide school which has produced so many stellar and influential people in our industry. Next step was a few years in the northern Serengeti, also running a guiding school and travelling to &Beyond camps to work with the guides on the ground. Walking the hills and plains of the Serengeti remains one of my highlights!

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Since returning to South Africa, I’ve done training work with a wide range of companies and guides, some in the finest wildlife lodges in the world and others in more logistically challenging environments. Most training has been with existing guiding teams, but occasionally I’ve had the chance to recruit, train and mentor a diverse and skilled team from scratch!

Training guides on foot in the wilds of southern Tanzania has always been fun. Running Head Guide workshops in Botswana and South Africa is always a good, fun challenge. Training guides in Rwanda when fully distracted by a very loud and restless colony of fruit bats was novel. Going online during the covid pandemic with a team of guides in India challenged not only my IT skills, but also co-ordination of a group when separated by many thousands of kilometres!

Boat guides, walking guides, driver guides, birding guides, fynbos guides have been some of the fun training sessions over the years. It’s been a privilege to meet a wide variety of passionate, skilled and eager to learn guides – this makes for a great shared learning environment.

Byron Ross - Silver Sengi Guide

Byron Ross

My deep love for nature was instilled in me by my father. My father, originally from Kenya, moved to South Africa where he met my mother. I grew up on a farm in the Magaliesberg region and spent much of my childhood on family camping trips to Kruger National Park. With my father’s captivating tales of the African bush, my passion for the natural world took root and flourished.

I began my guiding career in the Lowveld more than 30 years ago, working at prestigious lodges like Londolozi, Thornybush and Singita. I then spent seven enriching years at Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, where I ran the Inkwazi Ranger Training School, &Beyond’s in-house guide training school. Following this, I relocated with my family to White River, where I worked with the Good Work Foundation, an NGO dedicated to providing digital education to young children in local communities. During my time there, I helped establish a conservation academy.

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Al and I met and connected through our shared mutual interest in running Inkwazi Ranger Training School. This connection resulted in a collaboration of training guides across Africa and beyond, as a collective now under a new name called Silver Sengi.

It was a big dream of mine to travel and explore Africa and cement my sense of purpose by mentoring and coaching guides from all cultures and walks of life to reach their true potential through their growth and development.

I naturally connect with a wide range of people, both guests and guides alike. My most valued bonds are those I have shared with a few expert animal trackers, From them, I have gained ancient wisdom that has shaped not only my personal understanding but also enriched the experience for my guests. I believe in the power of ‘campfire stories’ to forge a deep connection to Africa’s essence—its people, history, and wildlife. Sharing these stories and facilitating that connection is my true passion.

Where

How

Teams

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… to explore a tailor-made training solution

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Our Testimonials

In copy are the best guide trainers I have ever worked with – I cannot recommend them highly enough. You will be in good hands!
Nicky FAngama CEO
Byron Ross’s training for our guiding team at ASISTEN Travel was exceptional. His expertise and passion for guiding elevated our team’s skills and knowledge to a new level. The training was interactive, engaging, and tailored to our specific needs and the unique Madagascar context. This made a lasting impact on the quality of our tours.
Haja RAsisten Travel, Madagascar
“For 10 years, Angama has been working with Alistair and, more recently, Byron for our Guide training. We love how their philosophy of delivering incredible guest experiences through an empowered, educated and happy guiding team perfectly mirrors the Angama brand philosophy. Our guiding teams across Kenya enthusiastically look forward to their annual training, which speaks volumes about how Al and Byron approach their training: lots of learning with equal laughter. We could not be happier with their service, partnership and many years of friendship.”
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– Kate Fitzgerald BoydAngama

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